Miller out again; Young to start

The injury saga of Mike Miller continues for the Wizards, who will be without one of their best shooters for tonight's game against Detroit. It may not matter because the Pistons are in freefall, having lost 13 straight games. That's their longest losing streak in 16 years.

In any event, Miller injured his right calf muscle on Nov. 21, came back on Jan. 8 in a 104-97 victory over Orlando and then aggrevated the injury in Washington's most recent game on Sunday, a 110-105 loss to New Orleans.

"He might be out a week or so. We don't know yet," Coach Flip Saunders said during his pre-game media session. "It's kind of day-to-day from that, but he's definitely not playing tonight."

With Miller out, Saunders said the starters will be Randy Foye at point guard, Nick Young at shooting guard, Caron Butler at small foward, Antawn Jamison at power forward and Brendan Haywood at center.

"It's a serious injury," Saunders said. "Anytime you have anything to do witih the muscle, until you start going full-go, you never know where it's at, so I mean, if we were in the playoffs, would he play? Yeah, probably. He would play in a playoff game. But we don't want to take a chance of we being where we're at, if he does pop it again, he's out another six weeks."

So essentially Young takes Miller's place in the starting lineup, which could be a blessing. Or not.

In his past five games, Young twice has scored at least 20 points, once scored zero and had one DNP.

"Sometimes what happens in Nick's situation, to be honest, he takes himself out of the game because he might not mentally be right into it," Saunders said. "He's one of those guys that if we put him in there, if he's on fire he plays because right now he's not to the point where he can stay on the floor for all the other stuff that he does."

I think Saunders is trying to teach the Wiz how to play winning basketball. It is just taking longer that any of us would like for a variety of reasons which include injuries, dysfunctions and probably the current distractions.

I am not sure what the rub is with Saunders and McGee. He must see something in McGee or his attitude that is not to his liking. It is possible by making him sit, he is forcing McGee to think (teaching him) about playing the way he wants.

That is only speculation, though. We have tried to get Michael to find out why McGee is not playing more, but I am not sure we got a valid answer.

"I guess we can blame this loss on being shorthanded and the players, but certainly not anything the coach has done of course."

Not unless you think it's the coach's fault they went almost the entire 4th quarter without grabbing an offensive rebound and only grabbed 3 or 4 total in the entire quarter (which, of course, you no doubt do).

The Wiz were outworked and outhustled, pure and simple. Can't coach effort.

Please FREE NICK YOUNG! He looks soooooo lazy and uninterested! Im sooooo tired of seeing his laziness. He just seems like he's not into the game of basketball at ALL. This dude is a joke! No defense, no hustle, no heart! Plain and simple, You can coach effort, heart, and dedication!

It's quite a telling statement that, despite a 13-game losing streak, the Pistons (after this game) are only 1/2 game behind the Wiz in the standings.

And, once again, a team goes up against the Wiz and have a great night doing something they've struggled doing all season (in this case, shooting the 3). The Wizards seem to have a habit of that, going back several years.

Jamison and Butler are the least physically imposing forward tandem in the league. They pose no presence on the defensive side of the ball. Miller's height at the 2 helped mask that a bit, but tonight we got dominated throughout the paint again. Even worse, we just looked helplessly small. Blatche was missed.

Foye, Butler, Jamison, Blatche, and Haywood would seem the logical starting five at this point, but Flip's too hard headed for that. That Flip keeps giving away second quarters with Boykins is also painful.

If he used McGuire there or Stevenson, they'd have how many more wins?

You think Saunders WANTS to give key minutes to Boykins? He knows how limited the guy is. At best Boykins is a fifth guard that you bring in for a quick burst offensively. Shake things up, et cetera. Otherwise he's a total liability especially defensively.

"Flip's decision to keep Haywood on the bench during pivotal stretches of the 4th has cost his team in each of the last two games."

The Wiz were down 6 when the 4th started with Haywood on the bench. They were down 4 when Haywood came in at about the 8 minute mark. He played the rest of the quarter, during which the Wiz were outscored 21 to 16.

My Daughter is into the NBA and at age 12 really has a good feel for the game judged by her comments. She calls the Wiz the Bullets because I first became a great fan in 1967 and loved the Pearl, Gus , Wes, Jack Marin, Freddy Carter and hell, loved Archie Clark's killer crossover after Earl went to New York and Archie averaged 25!

Even before the Big E came here and then Bobby Dandridge, the Bullet's COMPETED and the effort was always there.

My Daughter looked up at me in the 4th quarter and simply said "Dad, I can't tell whether they just can't play or just don't care" She then said "The Pistons have most their best Players injured but they just try harder than the Bullets"

Jeez, what a discrace! My 12 year old sees this team for the Dog's they are. I told her that Bullet's Fans are ashamed of these Wizards and they would'nt even deserve to be called the Bullet's anyway!

F@#$%^ do I hate the name Wizards! Bless you Abe and RIP but how the F@#$% did this happen?

Please,Please trade AJ and Caron along with Miller before they get hurt and you can get nothing for them. AJ is playing hard and extending a lot of minutes. We could be showcasing him. CB is getting worse and Nick young has become a soft as well,so he has to go. I say if you can trade CB and miller and blatche for TMAC do the deal. We will clear CB.s 9 mil of the books along with TMACs at the end of the year. We might be showcasing Haywood to and so the more he plays the more value we get. i know he wants to leave here badly.

Mike Miller the same work ethic as Andray Blatche? That's absurd. I know of at least one guy who has said that Miller is the hardest working, most unselfish, and highest basketball IQ he's coached in years-HUBIE BROWN.

Comparing the work ethic of those two is stupid and it shows the intelligence level of some Wizards' fans. Right on par with about 75% of the Redskins fans here.

Lay blame on the medical/training staff for Miller's situation, which is where it needs to be. They have a bigger track record of screwing up injuries than most professional franchises. Seems like common sense to me where the blame should be placed.